Art of manufacturing gas from petroleum oil



Nov. 29, 1927.

E.v M. CLARK ET AL ART OF MANUFACTURING GAS FROM PETROLEUMv OILFiled-May 27. 1920 n.001 Ob oom lill) (rklm (l Smau/toa b Patented Nav.29, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE.

EDGAR M. CLARK, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND NATHANIEL E. LOOMIS AND FRANK A.HOWARD, OF ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOBS TO STANDARD DEVELOPMENTCOMPANY, A CORPORATION F DELAWARE.

ABT OF MANUFACTURING GAS FROM PETROLEUM OIL.

Application :Bled Hay 27,

I matic drawing, the numeral l designates a water gas generator which isof the usual form, save that it is provided with a bustle pipe (2) whichVcommunicates through tuyres (3) with the central section of thegenerator. The bustle pipe has a valved connection (4) which joins theriser (5) connectng the upper and lower pipes 6 and 7) which enter theash pit and top of t e generator in the usual manner.

The carburetter, which is designated (8) is of the ordinary form as isthe superheater or fixer (9), the connections between these units of theset being in accordance with ordinary practice.

The oil handling apparatus associated with this water gas set comprisesa pump, (10) which draws the oil from the source of supply and deliversit to a preheating coll (1 1). The preheating coil in turn 1sconnectedwith a cracking `coil (12) and the latter wlth a release orexpansion drum (13), a pressure release valve (14:) being interposed.From the top of the release drum (13) avapor line (15) leads to afractional condenser (16), the condensate from which drains into areceiving drum (17). Those vapors not condensing in the-fractionalcondenser pass to a final condenser (18) which discharges into areceiver (19). There is a gas connection (20) for removing uncondensedoil gas from the top of the receiver (19).

A pitch bottom line (21) leads from the bottom of the release drum tothe top of the generator (1) being provided with a steam inlet (22) nearthe generator for spraying l the pitch over the surface of the coal orcoke in the top of the generator. The intermedie. ate receiver (17) isconnected by line (23) with the carburetter (8), being arranged to spraythe oil on the top of the checker brick in the usual manner. The oil gasline (20) has connections (24 and 25) by which the oil as may be puteither into the top of the ca r uretter or the bottom of the fixer. The

' heater in the 1920. Serial No. 884,782.

apparatus above described may be operated as follows:

A heavy asphaltie base crude oil,'of little value for refining purposessuch for example, as 12 gravitylanuco crude oil, is fed by the. pump(l0) into the preheat'er (11) 1n which it is raised to a temperature ofabout 775o F. At this temperature the oil enters the cracker or crackingcoil (12) and there undergoes decomposition, the cracking coll beingheated to give an outlet temperature on the oil of about 820o F. Thepreheater and cracking coil are held under a pressure of about 7 5pounds per square inch which-is reduced or entirely released at thevalve (14). It is preferred to inject superheated steam into the oilentering the preproportion of about ten to thirty pounds of steam perbarrel of oil. Owing to its high temperature, the oil passing theexpansion valve (14) is very largely converted into vapor within theexpansion drum. This vapor is taken olf through the vapor line (15) andfractionally condensed 1n the condenser (16). The fraction herecondensing, which may represent about %l of the oil fed to theapparatus, is a distillate fuel oil, or gas oil, that is clean,relatively light in gravity and free from asphaltic constituents. Thevapors not condensing in the fractional condenser (16) pass to thei'inal condenser (18) and are caught by the receiver (19) these vaporsbeing naphtha which may represent 10% of the oil fed. The remaining 10%of the oil fed Will have been converted in to gas during the crackingoperation, the gas being removed from the system by the line (20).

The water gas generating set is operated as follows:

The coal or coke in the generator, having been raised to a water gasmaking temperature, that is between 1500 and 2200 F. by blasting withair in the usual manner, is then subjected to the action of steamlentering through the grate bars at the bottom, and simultaneously theheavy pitch bottom, representing for examplea residue or bottom 12 B.from the lgravity crude oil referred to, is sprayed with steam on to thetop surface of the generator. The valves in the lines (6) and (7) areclosed, while the valve in the line (4) is open. Under these contomsprayed over the upper surface of the coal gas set,

is almost instantaneously cracked into lower boiling hydrocarbons,hydrogen and carbon. The carbon which mostly comes out in the form oflamp black, passes through the upper section of the 1generator, mixeswith the steam, and, being of the generator, is, in a large partconverted into water gas by reactlon with this steam.

The mixture of water gas from the bottom of the generator and combinedwater and oil gas from the top of the generator, passes outwardlythrough pipe (4) and thence to -the carburetter (8).. The gas oildistillate from receiver (17) is sprayed into this carburetter in theusual way, the tem erature of the carburetter being held at etween 1100and 1400o F., as is customary in the operation of carburetters onordinary distillate fuel oil or gas oil. Simultaneously, the gasproduced in the oil cracking apparatus is injected either into thecarburetter through pipe (24) or into the fixer through pipe (25). Thefixer may be carried at a temperature between 800 and 1100O F. for theusual purpose of fixing the carburetted water gas and for the additionalpurpose of breaking down any organic sulphur compounds in the gas intoinorganic sulphur which may be more readily removed by the usual aspurifying process.

At t e end of the make period of the the steam, pitch bottom, oil andgas will be shut 0H and an air blast admitted through the upper pipe (7)and lower pipe (6) to again raise the temperature of the generator, Thisair blast operation will be conducted in the ordinary manner save thatthe air blast will enter both at the top and bottom passing outwardlythrough the central pipe (4). The make period will follow t e blastperiod in the manner above described.

As an alternative of the operating method above described, the followingmethod which dispenses with the central outlet tuyrs (3) may beemployed:

The generator will be lair blasted in the usual manner from the bottomupwardly and outward through the connection to the carburetter. Duringthe gas making period, however, the total quantity of steam requiredwill be introduced through thepipe (22) on to the top of the generator,mixing with the pitch. The vapors from the pitch willl thereforetraverse the entire depth of the generator and pass to .the carburetterthrough the bottom connection The oil will be injected into the caruretter through linel 23, and the oil gas will enter eated to thetemperature the carburetter and the fixer.l

the carburetter or xer through line 24 or 25 just as first described. Ino erating according to this second describe method as well as accordingto the first described method, it will be found desirable in general toreverse the direction of the blast and of the make at intervals in orderto secure more uniform conditions within the generator. When the make is.reversed in direction, the pitch will not be admitted to the generator.

Although we have illustrated and Adescribed in some detail, in theforegoing, a plant suitable for the practice of our inven tion, and havegiven as an example the exact sequence of steps and manner of carryingout each step of the oil-cracking and gas making procedure, it should beunderstood that this is illustrative only, and that our invention is notlimited to the apparatus or process particularly described, except so`far as such limitations are incorporated in the following claims inwhich it is our intention to claim all novelty inherent in ourinvention.

What we claim isz- 1. The improvement in the art of cracking l heavyasphaltic base high sulphur oils and producing gas, which consists insubjecting the oil to a cracking operation at a conversion temperatureto give a small yield of oil gas, removing oil vapors and gas from thecracked oil leaving a pitch bottom, subjecting the pitch bottom togetherwith steam to a water gas making temperature thereby producing mixed oilgas and water as, condensing heavy distillate from the o vapors andcarburetting the mixed oil gas and water gas with the heavy distillate,separating the oil gas produced in the cracking of the oil from lightdistillate vapors and adding the oil gas to the carburetted gas, andpassing the mixture through a fixer at a temperature sufficient to breakdown organic sulphur compounds present.

2. The improvement in the art of utilizing heavy asphaltic base oils forthe production of gas, which consists in heating the oil to a conversiontemperature to give a small yield of oil gas, removing oil vapors andgas from the cracked oil leaving a heavy pitch bottom, introducing thepitch bottom into an incandescent coal bed in the presence of steam,passing the resulting gases through a carbu retter, condensing heavydistillate from the oil vapors, introducingthe heavy distillate into thecarburetter simultaneously with the said gases, and thereby carburettngthe gases therein.

3. The improvement in the art of producing gas with the aid of heavyasphaltic hase oils, which consists in heating the oil to a conversiontemperature at which a small yield of oil gas is produced, removing oilvapors and gas from the cracked oil leaving a pitch bottom, introducingthe pitch bottom into a part of an incandescent coal bed in thevpresence of steam and simultaneously introducing steam int'o anotherpart of the incan- 5 descent coal bed, passing the mixed gases thusproduced through a carburetter, condensing hea distillate from the oilva ors, introducingxthe heavy distillate into sai carburetters1multaneously with said mixed l0 gases, and carburetting the gasestherein.

4. The improvementin the art of utilizing heavy asphaltic base oils forthe production of gas, which consists in heating the oil to a conversiontemperature to .give a small yield 15 of cil gas, removing oil vaporsand gas from the cracked-oil leaving a pitch bottom, 'n-

' vapors and a a lix'er at a temperature sucient to break down organicsulphur compounds present.

FRANK A. HOWARD. EDGAR M. CLARK. NATHAN IEL E. LOOMIS.

ding the oil gas to the carbu- 86 retted gas, and passing the through Y

